LAW 12 - DIRECTOR'S DISCRETIONARY POWERS

1. Power to Award an Adjusted Score
   On the application of a player within the period established under Law 92B or on his own initiative the Director may award an adjusted score when these Laws empower him to do so (in team play see Law 86B). This includes:

   1. The Director may award an adjusted score in favor of a non-offending contestant when he judges that these Laws do not prescribe a rectification for the particular type of violation committed.
   2. The Director awards an artificial adjusted score if no rectification can be made that will permit normal play of the board (see C2 below).
   3. The Director may award an adjusted score if there has been an incorrect rectification of an irregularity.
2. Objectives of Score Adjustment
   1. The objective of score adjustment is to redress damage to a non-offending side and to take away any advantage gained by an offending side through its infraction. Damage exists when, because of an infraction, an innocent side obtains a table result less favorable than would have been the expectation had the infraction not occurred.
   2. The Director may not award an adjusted score on the grounds that the rectification provided in these Laws is either unduly severe or advantageous to either side.
3. Awarding an Adjusted Score
   1. 1. When after an irregularity the Director is empowered by these laws to adjust a score and is able to award an assigned adjusted score, he does so. Such a score replaces the score obtained in play.
      2. The Director in awarding an assigned adjusted score should seek to recover as nearly as possible the probable outcome of the board had the infraction not occurred.
      3. An assigned adjusted score may be weighted to reflect the probabilities of a number of potential results, but only outcomes that could have been achieved in a legal manner may be included.
      4. If the possibilities are numerous or not obvious, the Director may award an artificial adjusted score (see C2 below).
      5. If, subsequent to the irregularity, the non-offending side has contributed to its own damage by an extremely serious error (unrelated to the infraction) or by a gambling action, which if unsuccessful it might have hoped to recover through rectification, then:
         1. The offending side is awarded the score it would have been allotted as the consequence of rectifying its infraction.
         2. The non-offending side does not receive relief for such part of its damage as is self-inflicted.
   2. 1. When owing to an irregularity no result can be obtained [see also C1(d)], the Director awards an artificial adjusted score according to responsibility for the irregularity: average minus (at most 40% of the available matchpoints in pairs) to a contestant directly at fault, average (50% in pairs) to a contestant only partly at fault, and average plus (at least 60% in pairs) to a contestant in no way at fault.
      2. When the Director chooses to award an artificial adjusted score of average plus or average minus at IMP play, that score is plus 3 IMPs or minus 3 IMPs respectively. Subject to approval by the Regulating Authority, this may be varied by the Tournament Organizer as provided for by Laws 78D, 86B3 and (d) hereunder.
      3. The foregoing is modified for a nonoffending contestant that obtains a session score exceeding 60% of the available matchpoints or for an offending contestant that obtains a session score that is less than 40% of the available matchpoints (or the equivalent in IMPs). Such contestants are awarded the percentage obtained (or the equivalent in IMPs) on the other boards of that session.
      4. The Regulating Authority may provide for circumstances where a contestant fails to obtain a result on multiple boards during the same session. The scores assigned for each subsequent board may be varied by regulation from those prescribed in (a) and (b) above.
   3. In individual events the Director enforces the rectifications in these Laws, and the provisions requiring the award of adjusted scores, equally against both members of the offending side even though only one of them may be responsible for the irregularity. But the Director shall not award a procedural penalty against the offender's partner if of the opinion that he is in no way to blame.
   4. When the Director awards non-balancing adjusted scores in knockout play, each contestant's score on the board is calculated separately and the average of them is assigned to each.